Spotted moray

Photo: Ben Illis · © all rights reserved

Spotted morays are abundant in the crevice-rich wall structure of Dragon Bay, extending their heads from cracks to respiratory-pump water over their gills and displaying their teeth — a behaviour divers sometimes misread as aggression but is simply breathing. They are cooperative hunters with Caribbean reef octopuses and groupers, with each species driving prey from hiding towards the other. Their ability to move through reef crevices makes them important predators of small reef fish that would otherwise be inaccessible.